Jayhawk Debate Institute Staff

The Jayhawk Debate Institute year after year has one of the finest staff of debate coaches and instructors you will find anywhere in the country. Here is a list of some of the great staff members at the 2013 JDI!

Office Staff
Dr. Scott Harris is the Director of Debate at the University of Kansas. Dr. Harris is the also the Director of the JDI. He has coached numerous nationally competitive teams during his time at KU including the 2009 NDT Champion and several teams to late elimination rounds at the National Debate Tournament, the CEDA National Tournament, and other national and regional tournaments. Dr. Harris won the Northwestern Debate Society Excellence in Coaching Award and the Gene A. Budig Teaching Professorship in the Social and Behavioral Sciences for the 2010-2011 school year.
Dr. Kelly Winfrey is one of the Associate Directors of the 2013 JDI. She has been an assistant coach at the University of Kansas since 2007. During that time she has coached numerous teams competing at all levels of competition. Kelly has worked as a lab leader at several camps, and this is her second year in the associate director position. Kelly was a successful high school debater in Missouri at Raymore Peculiar High School and debated at Emporia State University in college. Dr. Winfrey received her Ph.D. in Communication Studies with an emphasis on gender and politics.
Natalie Pennington is one of the Associate Directors of the 2013 JDI, and has been an assistant debate coach at the University of Kansas since 2010. Natalie debated in high school for Springfield Central in Springfield, MO, and in college at Missouri State University. She spent two years as an assistant coaching for Kansas State University where the squad saw success both on the district and national level. She has previously worked at both the UMKC and Kansas State high school summer camps for debate.
Mike Kearney is one of the Associate Directors of the 2013 JDI and an assistant debate coach at the University of Kansas. Mike debated as an undergraduate at Missouri State University where he qualified to the NDT four times and received a first round at-large bid to the tournament in 2010. Mike has coached debaters to elimination rounds at the NDT, NFL nationals, and the TOC, and worked at more than a dozen debate camps.

Dorm Staff
Daniel Stout debated his high school career at Manhattan High School reaching out-rounds of tournaments like Washburn Rural, Lawrence, Wichita East, Hutchinson, and Winfield. Dan went on to debate at Kansas State University where he reached outrounds of the Cross Examination Debate Association National Championship, and was also a National Debate Tournament Qualifier. While in college he worked at camp and individually during the season with multiple two speaker and four speaker champions in Kansas. Daniel has also coached at McPherson High School. Since graduating college Dan went on to coach at Kansas State during graduate school, where they won multiple JV national championships, had NDT qualifiers and CEDA outround participants. Dan went on to be Assistant Director of Debate at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh where they ascended the national rankings with great velocity and now is very excited to be working back in the Kansas City area helping mold the next great debaters out of Kansas.

Three-week policy debate: June 30-July 20
Patrick Kennedy debated at Shawnee Mission East for four years before coaching there for three years. He also debated at KU for four years. During that time he was a three time first round qualifier to the NDT, including a top 5 finish, and twice was in the final four of the CEDA debate tournament. He currently is a graduate student in economics, and coaches debate at the University of Central Florida. Patrick has taught at the JDI for the past three years this will be his fourth year at the camp. This year, Patrick will be a 3-week lab leader.

Melanie Campbell is a fourth year debater at the University of Kansas and debated at Shawnee Mission West High School. Her high school career highlights include finals of the CFL National Tournament, winning DCI, clearing at national circuit tournaments and participating in late out rounds of Kansas tournaments. While at KU, Melanie has qualified to the NDT three times, been in the top 16 teams at CEDA Nationals, cleared at every major national tournament, and has been consistently in the late out rounds of/received speaker awards at district tournaments. Previously coaching at Shawnee Mission West, she is currently coaching for Blue Valley North and has coached her teams to State finals, multiple CFL/NFL/DCI qualifications, TOC bids, and late outrounds of tournaments such as Washburn Rural, Shawnee Mission East, Wichita East, KCKCC, etc. This will be her fourth summer at the JDI, and this year Melanie will be working as a 3-week lab leader.

Kristiana Baez started her debate career at Norman High School. She debated all four years and competed in outrounds at local tournaments as well as the Oklahoma State Tournament. She also qualified for NFL Nationals in 2009. Kristiana continued her debate career at the University of Oklahoma where she has competed in outrounds at tournaments such as UNT, UTD, WSU, UMKC and CEDA Nationals. She currently assists in coaching Edmond Santa Fe High School. This will be Kristiana's first summer at the JDI, and she will be working as a 3-week lab assistant.

William James Taylor ("JT") began debate at Wm. Chrisman High School in Independence, MO. He has been coaching college debate for 16 years, including 13 consecutive years at the JDI! He will complete his Masters degree in Communication Studies from Kansas State University in May 2013. Prior to becoming a Graduate Teaching Assistant at KState, JT spent several years at Emporia State University where he coached debaters to outrounds at every major national tournament in college. JT has worked with every style and form of debate and argument imaginable. This summer JT returns as a 3-week lab leader for the JDI.

Brendon Bankey is currently a graduate debate assistant at Wake Forest University finishing up his M.A., and has recently accepted an offer to come coach debate KU while starting work on his Ph.D.—we are excited to have him join the Jayhawks! Prior to attending Wake he debated for three years at Round Rock HS (Round Rock, TX) and for four years as an undergrad at Trinity University in San Antonio. At Trinity he participated in the outrounds of numerous major national tournaments including the octafinals of the NDT. He is also currently a researcher for Heritage Hall HS (Oklahoma City) and has judged, researched, and coached for Whitney Young HS (Chicago) at NFL Nationals and the TOC. Brendon is looking forward to his third summer instructing at the JDI, this year returning as a 3-week lab leader.

Brian Box debated at Wichita State University, where he is currently an assistant debate coach. Brian was a four time qualifier to the National Debate Tournament, reached the quarterfinals of the NDT, was the top speaker at CEDA Nationals in 2012, and reached the elimination rounds of most major national tournaments. He has coached high school debate in Kansas for five years. His teams have qualified for and reached the elimination rounds of both NFL and NCFL nationals. This is Brian's second summer at the JDI, this year working as a 3-week lab leader.

Addison Schile is currently in his first year at the University of Kansas where he has broken at several regional tournaments and competed at most major national tournaments. In high school he debated for Washburn Rural High School where he achieved an NFL qualification, two 6A state semi-finalist awards, and was in the top 10 at the Debate Coaches Invitational. He also competed nationally reaching late elimination rounds at the Iowa Caucus and KCKCC tournaments. This is Addison's first summer at JDI where he will be working as a 3-week lab assistant.

Ciera Foreman debated for Blue Valley North High School where she was a semi-finalist at the Kansas State Debate Tournament, qualifier to the NFL tournament, and participated in many elimination rounds at national and state tournaments. Her teaching experience includes being a Senior Assistant at the Dartmouth Debate Workshop and currently assistant coaching at Blue Valley North. As a debater for KU Ciera has cleared and received speaker awards at several regional tournaments over the past two years. This is Ciera's first summer at the JDI where she will be working as a 3-week lab assistant.

Erum Shah is a former Jayhawk, debating at KU for four years where she saw much success in her career before graduating in 2009—she has not lost her love for debate however, and has worked every summer for the JDI since graduating! Erum will be returning as a 3-week lab assistant this summer.

Michael Souders is a visiting assistant professor at the University of Alaska and a former graduate assistant debate coach at the University of Kansas from 2006-2011, where is he was a part of the coaching staff and team that won the NDT in 2009 and had nine First Round bids and fourteen total qualifiers to the NDT over six years. Past students in Michael's lab have won the 6A and 5A Kansas state championships, qualified for NFL Nationals and the Tournament of Champions, and have gone to debate at Kansas, Harvard, UMKC, Wyoming, Concordia College and Kansas State. Mick will be returning to the JDI this year as a 3-week lab leader.

Two-week policy debate: June 30-July 13
Matt Munday is an assistant coach at Wichita State University. He debated for four years at Wichita State. He experienced success at the regional and national level notably reaching the quarterfinals of the National Debate Tournament in his senior year. He also coaches debate at the high school level. Matt will be returning this year as a 2-week lab leader.

Kurt Fifelski is the assistant debate coach at the University of Central Oklahoma. He has also coached at Emporia State University and Emporia high school. As a debater at Emporia State, Kurt qualified to the National Debate Tournament multiple times, and was in deep elimination rounds at a number of tournaments. One of his undergraduate degrees is in International Relations, so he greatly looks forward to this coming year's high school topic. Kurt will be returning this year as a 2-week lab leader.

Courtney Schauer is a 4th year debater at the University of Minnesota, majoring is political science. She is an NDT qualifier, and has appeared in the out rounds of many national and regional tournaments including: CEDA, USC, UTD, and UNI, among others. She also works at Highland Park High School in St. Paul, MN, where she has helped teams reach elimination rounds at many tournaments, including quarterfinals of Valley, the octafinals of Dowling, and the semifinals of the Minnesota State Tournament in both the varsity and novice divisions. This is Courtney's first year at the JDI where she will be working as a 2-week lab leader.

Phillip Samuels has been involved in college debate for over ten years. He debated at Emporia State University where he cleared at most national tournaments, including the National Debate Tournament. As a coach Phil did his graduate work under Scott Harris at the University of Kansas where together they coached six first rounds in six years and an NDT champion. Phil now coaches and teaches at Illinois State University. He has worked at numerous debate camps over the last decade including the Jayhawk Debate Institute, the NYUDL, the Spartan Debate Institute at Michigan State, and Stanford University. Phil's lab students have gone on to receive multiple TOC bids, compete at every major national tournament, and have won the Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri State tournaments For the last three years Phil has also been an assistant coach for the College Preparatory School (CPS), in Berkley California. As a coach at CPS Phil has coached teams to outrounds at every major national tournament including the TOC and a finalist at the 2012 NFL National Tournament. This is Phil's 10th summer at the JDI, where he will be working as a 2 week lab leader.

Deven Cooper debated in the Baltimore Urban Debate League for 3 ½ years, traditionally, in high school. After graduation he went to the University of Louisville to switch to performance or critical styles of debate dealing with black participation. After two years there Deven went to Towson University to debate with The Great Dayvon Love! As a team they engaged in more radical black and identity based performative perspectives of debate…eventually winning CEDA in 2008 and participating as a finalist in 2009. Deven and Dayvon were also in quarters of the NDT with a first round bid at large. Deven is currently part time faculty and a debate coach at CSUF. Deven returns this year to the JDI as a 2 week lab leader.

Emily Bosch is a 3rd year debater at Concordia College in Minnesota, majoring in political science and sociology. She qualified to the NDT as a sophomore, winning her district tournament. She has appeared in several outrounds at national and regional tournaments including: UNT, UTD, Emporia, Wichita State, and Iowa, among many others. She began her career debating for four years at Yankton High School, qualifying for NFL nationals twice. Emily also attended the JDI for three years in high school, and we're excited to now have her join the staff! This is Emily's first year with the JDI, where she will be working as a 2-week lab leader.

Alex McVey is the Assistant Director of Debate at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Alex began his debate career at Olathe East High School in Olathe, Kansas. He then debated for Baylor University in Waco, TX for five years. Alex was a four time NDT participant, one time NDT outround participant, two time CEDA octafinalist, and the top speaker at the D3 NDT qualifier tournament his senior year. As a coach, he has helped coach teams to the Kentucky Round Robin, a first round at large bid to the NDT, and the quarterfinals of the NDT. He received his BA in Spanish Language and International Studies from Baylor University in 2010, and his MA in Speech Communication from Baylor University in 2012. Alex also serves on the editorial board of the newly found debate journal kdebate (www.kdebate.com). This Alex's second year at the JDI, returning as a 2-week lab leader.

Heather Woods debated in college for Kansas State University, clearing at CEDA and regional tournaments consistently through out her career. Heather currently coaches for Baylor University while working on her M.A. in Communication Studies which she will complete this spring. This is Heather's second summer working for the JDI, where she is returning as a 2-week lab leader.

Nick Watts currently coaches debate for Harvard, and debated at the University of Oklahoma in college where he won CEDA Nationals not once, but twice! Nick returns this summer to the JDI as a 2-week lab leader.

Ryan Wash is a 4th year debater for Emporia State University where he just received a first round bid for the NDT on the heels of an appearance in the finals of the Northwestern tournament. Ryan is returning the JDI this summer as a 2-week lab leader.

Chris Loghry currently coaches for Emporia State University, where he also debated as an undergraduate. Chris's team has enjoyed great success, qualifying for the NDT with a first round bid this year. Chris returns to the JDI this year after a short break away as a 2-week lab leader.